Netflix is in production on a new documentary series with NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace as he competes in his first season for the new 23XI Racing team owned by Michael Jordan and fellow driver Denny Hamlin. The sides are not announcing the name of the series or when it will be released, but they are saying that it will take viewers behind the scenes of this season and explore Wallace’s efforts to advocate for diversity, equality and inclusion in NASCAR and America. Wallace has one of the quickest growing fanbases in the sport after taking a lead role in last year’s social justice movement.

Production companies for the series will be 300 Studios and Boardwalk Pictures, while the director will be Erik Parker, who will also be an exec producer alongside Kevin Liles, Nolan Baynes and Kelly G. Griffin for 300 Studios; Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard, Jordy Wynn and Sarina Roma for Boardwalk; and NASCAR Senior VP & Chief Digital Officer Tim Clark, Managing Dir of Entertainment Marketing & Content Development Matt Summers and former NASCAR Productions Managing Dir and Exec Producer Tally Hair. The series is the latest collaboration by NASCAR and Netflix, which previously partnered on "The Crew" comedy series that debuted earlier this year starring Kevin James.

Athletes who make political or social justice protests at the Tokyo Games "were promised legal support Thursday by a global union and an activist group in Germany." The pledges came one day after the IOC upheld Rule 50 -- its "long-standing ban on 'demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda' on the field of play, on medal podiums or at any official ceremonies." World Players Association Exec Dir Brendan Schwab said, "Any athlete sanctioned at the Tokyo Olympics will have the full backing of the World Players." Additionally, Athleten Deutschland, the independent group representing German athletes, "pledged legal backing for its national team" (AP, 4/22).

The NFL’s involvement in the Amazon Prime original docuseries “All or Nothing” is on ice as league officials review its strategic direction, sources said. The series skipped '20 due to the pandemic, and its future is unclear. The dilemma is mostly in the timing of the show, which was always intended to give fans an inside look at a team during the season, as opposed to the higher-profile training camp series “Hard Knocks” on HBO. “All or Nothing” viewership underwhelmed, likely because it aired in the offseason.

However, the obvious solution to that -- accelerating production to air episodes during the season -- is a nonstarter for coaches already reluctant to allow cameras into sensitive team functions. NFL officials emphasize the show is not dead, and the pandemic is the primary reason there was no production in '20.

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Heineken USA is now the exclusive beer and hard seltzer partner of the Islanders' new UBS Arena, and is designated as a founding partner of the venue. Heineken will be the exclusive marketer of the entire beer category at the arena, including alcohol-free beer, cider and hard seltzer. There will be four Heineken-branded bars throughout the facility, each designed to evoke a different iconic N.Y. landmarks. One of the spaces will be an outdoor terrace bar with views of nearby Belmont Park. The beer brand and the NHL team will codevelop programming that includes strategic branding and in-market fan activations (Heineken USA).

Heineken-themed bars at USB Arena

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Mitsubishi and the MLB Giants have discovered a way to monetize an unrealized ballpark asset so obvious and visible, it makes one wonder why it hadn’t been thought of before. The video company recently mounted LED ribbon displays to the concrete lip of Oracle Park’s dugouts, giving the Giants high-exposure advertising inventory that has never been utilized in a ballpark. The displays measure 7.6 inches high by 54 feet long. State Farm and Oracle are among team partners who have received exposure on the displays.

Giants Senior Sponsor Activation Coordinator Mike Martin said the club is projecting "a big increase in TV and in-ballpark exposure with the new execution." Martin: "We are selling the inventory and seeing huge interest from current and prospective clients about the new signage." While traditional ribbon boards are seen mainly by fans in the venue, Todd Stih, GM of Mitsubishi's Diamond Vision Systems unit, said, “This is an asset that is geared towards increasing national TV exposure for the Giants’ partners.” Through 15 games televised on NBC Sports Bay Area through April 20, the Giants are averaging approximately 110,000 viewers per game (TV and streaming) in the S.F. market.

GIANTS

The Rockets and Levy Restaurants launched a pilot program this week, deploying a robot serving beer and snacks in Toyota Center’s Suite Club. The autonomous robot, Bear Robotics’ Servi model, doesn’t replace any human workers, and is in fact accompanied by one, who checks IDs on alcohol selections, for example. The Rockets and Levy are trialing the robot for the remainder of the NBA season, and will continue doing so during other Toyota Center events after the season concludes. Levy, which didn’t disclose the cost of the robot, is working with Bear Robotics to launch several more pilot programs with Levy client venues in the coming months. Other teams and properties throughout the sports industry have utilized robots in back-of-house roles, primarily in kitchens, but few have tested fan-facing robots.

MLS this Earth Day is unveiling several projects as part of its MLS WORKS Greener Goals initiative, including a partnership with One Tree Planted on a reforestation project, as well as a collaboration with South Pole to help protect the Amazon rainforest. Through the partnership with One Tree Planted, MLS will plant 27,000 trees -- 1,000 for each club currently playing in the league -- in national forests across the U.S. and Canada. MLS also will partner with Green Sports Alliance to help teams and stadiums reach benchmark environmental performances (MLSSOCCER.com, 4/22).

Meanwhile, each home run the Pirates hit at PNC Park this season "will result in a new tree being planted in one of the city's neighborhoods," part of the team's new Earth Day partnership with Duquesne Light Co. The Pirates also announced the "reopening of the team's Urban Garden, which can be found at the suite level within the ballpark, in time" for Earth Day today (BIZJOURNALS.com, 4/22). 

The Union and Subaru of America, the MLS club’s stadium naming-rights sponsor since February ‘20, are working together to make Subaru Park the first-ever zero landfill stadium in MLS. That means no trash would be sent to a nearby landfill. As part of the goal, Subaru Park will set up 111 waste containers for fans to dispose of trash and recyclable products before they are removed. The end result of the initiative will be roughly 357,480 pounds of waste not being directed toward local landfills.

Union

SENSE ARENA

Sense Arena Founder & CEO Bob Tetiva today shed some additional light on the three-year deal that sees the Prague-based VR training company become the Devils' official cognitive training tool. Financial terms of the deal weren’t provided, but Tetiva said that there are three pillars to the relationship: use by the NHL club and AHL affiliate for “skill development and rehabilitation for players who are injured or returning from injury;” kids across the state in the Devils youth hockey program having access to the technology; and finally, Sense Arena staging fan activation on the Prudential Center concourse and receiving digital/social sponsorship assets, among other deal elements.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to grow the hockey market and show people what it’s like being in the crease as a goalie and facing shots at an NHL level,” said Tetiva, who added that nearly 50% of the company’s users are based in the U.S. Tetiva also said that 40-plus goalies across the NHL, AHL and KHL, among other pro hockey leagues, utilize the training tool. Devils Senior VP/Corporate Partnerships Adam Cross closed the deal for the NHL team. Devils VP/Athlete Care Chris Stackpole is leading the relationship for the franchise and will be responsible for setting up the training software in headsets.

Ball Corp. will become the Chargers' sustainability partner. The deal will include community engagement, increased use of aluminum beverage packaging and game day activations to improve recycling (Ball Corp.).

Jac Collinsworth will join NBC Sports’ Kentucky Derby coverage as a reporter next Saturday, May 1. Collinsworth is from Kentucky (NBC Sports).

Captain Morgan and FanDuel partnered to launch a free-to-play Captain Morgan Soccer Pick ‘Em contest series, held on Saturdays throughout the MLS season (THE DAILY).

Animal health/wellness brand Better Choice Co. unveiled a deal with Dodgers 3B Justin Turner, his wife Kourtney Turner and their two miniature pinchers, Moonshine and Rigby (Better Choice).

HVAC repair/service company Air Pros USA is now the official air conditioning partner of Univ. of Florida football (Learfield IMG College).

“For football pyramid stability we need to ensure we are maximising revenue but we went about it the wrong way on this occasion" -- Arsenal Dir Josh Kroenke, on the European Super League (THEATHLETIC.com, 4/22).

"The first question that anybody at the negotiating table would have is, ‘What’s the money look like? Are we still going to get paid? Are we going to have enough games to honor our media contracts?’” -- ESPN’s Baxter Holmes, on whether the NBA and NBPA would agree on a 72-game season going forward (“OTL,” ESPN, 4/22).

“Knicks fans are renowned for their delusions. It’s always that MSG will be the thing that’s going to bring the next superstar to town, and that they are always a story even when they’re terrible. And those are the reasons people get snarky about the Knicks” -- ESPN’s Sarah Spain, on fan excitement surrounding the Knicks, who currently sit in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with an eight-game winning streak (“Highly Questionable,” ESPN, 4/22).

A lot of discussion on Twitter today about how smart Mac Jones is. That's great. Joshua Dobbs is literally a rocket scientist. 4.0 GPA in Aerospace Engineering. Now four years in NFL, 45 passing yards.
Tell me if Jones has the arm.

— Michael DeCourcy (@tsnmike) April 22, 2021

Why didn’t Tom Brady complain about the single-digit jersey rule before the owners voted on it? It’s not like it was a secret proposal.

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) April 22, 2021

Dave Gettleman on Kyle Pitts: "He's a different breed of cat." #Giants

— Pat Leonard (@PLeonardNYDN) April 22, 2021

Some perspective:

MLB teams might have 15-30 people in analytics-related roles.

In almost all other sports, an analytics department of 5+ would be considered big.

Baseball teams are operating with small tech companies while everyone else has a very early-stage startup.

— Brendan Kent (@brendankent) April 22, 2021

Sources: Kentucky assistant Tony Barbee expected to become the next coach at Central Michigan. He's the former head coach at UTEP and Auburn.

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 22, 2021

MMA fighter and occasional screen star Georges St-Pierre describes how he spent his first $1M after joining the UFC roster.

U.S. gymnast Simone Biles will appear on NBC's "The Tonight Show" at 11:35pm ET.

859,844,612 -- Twitter impressions for proposed, then seemingly scuttled, European Super League over a 48-hour period earlier this week, according to social metrics brand Zoomph (TWITTER.com, 4/22).